Incident Name: Fall Creek Ridge Fire on the Payette National Forest near Council, ID
Date: July 3 1946, 2130 hours, died 2 days later
Personnel: Lester Lycklama
Age:
Agency/Organization: USFS, McCall Smokejumper
Position: Smoke Jumper/Firefighter
Summary: McCall Smokejumper Lester Lycklama was killed by a snag on the Fall Creek Ridge Fire on the Payette National Forest near Council, Idaho. Three jumpers had deployed to the fire. Lycklama and his partner Hennessey were using a crosscut saw to fall a lightning-struck ponderosa pine. The snag’s top third suddenly burned in two, broke off, and fell almost vertically. Their spotter Aguirre yelled a warning and the sawyers started running in their preselected escape routes. Lycklama tried to run, but tripped on a root, fell face down and was struck on the head by a tree limb, knocking him unconscious with a severe head injury. Lycklama died two days later 7/5/1946 on the hospital operating table at Council Hospital, never having regained consciousness. (from the National Smokejumper Association brochure of the fallen, compiled in 2003 by Carl Gidlund (Missoula ’58), and Two More Chains, Summer 2011)
Maps
Council, Idaho
{mosmap lat=’44.729898’|lon=’-116.438190’|marker=’0’|text=’Council ID’}
McCall Smokejumper Base: lat: 44.894850° lon: -116.100832°
Reports, Documentation, Lessons Learned
McCall Memorial, ID: Memorialized there are the following smokejumpers and pilots. Smokejumpers Roger Roth and Jim Thrash died at Storm King, 7/6/94. Pilots Marvin “Whitey” Hachmeister and John Slingerland died on the Selway River, 6/11/79. SJ Keith Moose Salyer and Pilot Byron Skip Knapp died on the Norton Creek Fire, 7/9/65. SJ Lester Lycklama died on the Fall Creek Ridge Fire, 7/3/46.
Wildlandfire.com Links:
- Photo of Smokejumper Memorial at McCall Jumper Base and Description
- WLF.com Memorials page
Media Articles and Reports
Photos, Videos, & Tributes
- US Forest Service: Heroes Memorial
Contributors to this article: Bob Kausen, Carl Gidlund, Brett Rogers, The Wildland Firefighter Foundation, John Miller
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